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Information Technology Project
Management, Sixth Edition
Copyright 2009
Explain the importance of good human resource
management on projects, including the current state and
future implications of the global IT workforce
Define project human resource management and
understand its processes
Summarize key concepts for managing people by
understanding the theories of Abraham Maslow, Frederick
Herzberg, David McClelland, and Douglas McGregor on
motivation, H. J. Thamhain and D. L. Wilemon on
influencing workers, and Stephen Covey on how people
and teams can become more effective
Information Technology Project
Management, Sixth Edition 2
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Discuss human resource planning and be able to create a
human resource plan, project organizational chart,
responsibility assignment matrix, and resource histogram
Understand important issues involved in project staff
acquisition and explain the concepts of resource
assignments, resource loading, and resource leveling
Assist in team development with training, team-building
activities, and reward systems
Explain and apply several tools and techniques to help
manage a project team and summarize general advice on
managing teams
Describe how project management software can assist in
project human resource management
Information Technology Project
Management, Sixth Edition 3
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Many corporate executives have said, “People are our most important asset”
People determine the success and failure of organizations and projects
Information Technology Project
Management, Sixth Edition 4
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Although there have been ups and downs in the IT
labor market, there will always be a need for good
IT workers
The Digital Planet 2008 study estimated that the
global marketplace for information and
communications technology (ICT) would top $3.7
trillion in 2008 and reach almost $4 trillion by 2011
Information Technology Project
Management, Sixth Edition 5
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Communications products and services represented the
largest single category of ICT spending (57 percent) in
2007 with $1.9 trillion; consumers spent 29 percent of ICT
dollars worldwide, while spending by business and
government accounted for 71 percent
The top ten ICT spending countries are, in descending
order: the U.S., Japan, China, Germany, U.K., France,
Italy, Brazil, Canada, and Spain; in 2008, China jumped
ahead of Germany, the United Kingdom, and France
The Americas’ growth in ICT spending will be the slowest
of the three broad regions at 4 percent between 2007 and
2011; the Asia-Pacific region and the Europe, Africa, and
Middle East regions will grow annually at 10.5 percent and
5 percent, respectively
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Management, Sixth Edition 6
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U.S. IT employment topped 4 million for the first time in 2008
Several IT-related occupations will be among the
top 30 fastest-growing occupations in the U.S.
between now and 2016, with network systems/data
communications analysts and computer software
engineers listed as numbers one and four
IT staff struggle to transition to project
management, CIOs argue, and complain that
educational institutions are not putting adequate
focus on these skills through coursework
Information Technology Project
Management, Sixth Edition 7
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Proactive organizations are addressing workforce
needs by: ◦ Improving benefits
◦ Redefining work hours and incentives
◦ Finding future workers
Information Technology Project
Management, Sixth Edition 8
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Here’s the dirty little secret: U.S. productivity is No. 1 in the world when productivity is measured as gross domestic product per worker, but our lead vanishes when productivity is measured as GDP per hour worked…Europeans take an average of six to seven weeks of paid annual leave, compared with just 12 days in the United States; twice as many American as European workers put in more than 48 hours per week
Sociologists have shown that many Americans, especially men, would like to have more family or leisure time; recent surveys show that many Americans are willing to sacrifice up to a quarter of their salaries in return for more time off
Information Technology Project
Management, Sixth Edition 9
Copyright 2009
A 2006 report by The Conference Board,
Corporate Voices for Working Families,
Partnership for 21st Century Skills, and the
Society for Human Resource Management
suggests that entry level workers in the U.S. are
ill-prepared for the workplace
Four-year college graduates were listed as
deficient in the following three skills: ◦ Written communications - 27.8%
◦ Writing in English - 26.2%
◦ Leadership - 23.8%
Information Technology Project
Management, Sixth Edition 10
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Making the most effective use of the people involved with a project
Processes include: ◦ Developing the human resource plan: identifying and
documenting project roles, responsibilities, and reporting relationships
◦ Acquiring the project team: getting the needed personnel assigned to and working on the project
◦ Developing the project team: building individual and group skills to enhance project performance
◦ Managing the project team: tracking team member performance, motivating team members, providing timely feedback, resolving issues and conflicts, and coordinating changes to help enhance project performance
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Management, Sixth Edition 11
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Psychologists and management theorists have
devoted much research and thought to the field of
managing people at work
Important areas related to project management
include: ◦ Motivation theories
◦ Influence and power
◦ Effectiveness
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Management, Sixth Edition 13
Copyright 2009
Intrinsic motivation causes people to participate in an activity for their own enjoyment
Extrinsic motivation causes people to do something for a reward or to avoid a penalty
For example, some children take piano lessons for intrinsic motivation (they enjoy it) while others take them for extrinsic motivation (to get a reward or avoid punishment)
Information Technology Project
Management, Sixth Edition 14
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Abraham Maslow argued that humans possess
unique qualities that enable them to make
independent choices, thus giving them control of
their destiny
Maslow developed a hierarchy of needs which
states that people’s behaviors are guided or
motivated by a sequence of needs
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Management, Sixth Edition 15
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Frederick Herzberg wrote several famous books and articles about worker motivation; he distinguished between: ◦ Motivational factors: achievement, recognition, the work
itself, responsibility, advancement, and growth, which produce job satisfaction
◦ Hygiene factors: cause dissatisfaction if not present, but do not motivate workers to do more; examples include larger salaries, more supervision, and a more attractive work environment
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Management, Sixth Edition 17
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Specific needs are acquired or learned over time and shaped by life experiences, including: ◦ Achievement (nAch): achievers like challenging projects
with achievable goals and lots of feedback
◦ Affiliation (nAff): people with high nAff desire harmonious relationships and need to feel accepted by others, so managers should try to create a cooperative work environment for them
◦ Power (nPow): people with a need for power desire either personal power (not good) or institutional power (good for the organization); provide institutional power seekers with management opportunities
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Management, Sixth Edition 19
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Douglas McGregor popularized the human relations approach to management in the 1960s
Theory X: assumes workers dislike and avoid work, so managers must use coercion, threats, and various control schemes to get workers to meet objectives
Theory Y: assumes individuals consider work as natural as play or rest and enjoy the satisfaction of esteem and self-actualization needs
Theory Z: introduced in 1981 by William Ouchi and is based on the Japanese approach to motivating workers, emphasizing trust, quality, collective decision making, and cultural values
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Management, Sixth Edition 20
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1. Authority: the legitimate hierarchical right to issue orders
2. Assignment: the project manager's perceived ability to influence a worker's later work assignments
3. Budget: the project manager's perceived ability to authorize others' use of discretionary funds
4. Promotion: the ability to improve a worker's position
5. Money: the ability to increase a worker's pay and benefits
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Management, Sixth Edition 21
Copyright 2009
6. Penalty: the project manager's ability to cause
punishment
7. Work challenge: the ability to assign work that
capitalizes on a worker's enjoyment of doing a
particular task
8. Expertise: the project manager's perceived
special knowledge that others deem important
9. Friendship: the ability to establish friendly
personal relationships between the project
manager and others
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Management, Sixth Edition 22
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Projects are more likely to succeed when project managers influence with: ◦ Expertise
◦ Work challenge
Projects are more likely to fail when project managers rely too heavily on: ◦ Authority
◦ Money
◦ Penalty
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Management, Sixth Edition 23
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Power is the potential ability to influence behavior to get people to do things they would not otherwise do
Types of power include: ◦ Coercive
◦ Legitimate
◦ Expert
◦ Reward
◦ Referent
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Management, Sixth Edition 24
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Project managers can apply Covey’s 7 habits to improve effectiveness on projects ◦ Be proactive
◦ Begin with the end in mind
◦ Put first things first
◦ Think win/win
◦ Seek first to understand, then to be understood
◦ Synergize
◦ Sharpen the saw
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Management, Sixth Edition 25
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Good project managers are empathic listeners; they listen with the intent to understand
Before you can communicate with others, you have to have rapport, a relation of harmony, conformity, accord, or affinity
Mirroring is the matching of certain behaviors of the other person, a technique to help establish rapport
IT professionals need to develop empathic listening and other people skills to improve relationships with users and other stakeholders
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Management, Sixth Edition 26
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Involves identifying and documenting project roles, responsibilities, and reporting relationships
Contents include: ◦ Project organizational charts
◦ Staffing management plan
◦ Responsibility assignment matrixes
◦ Resource histograms
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Management, Sixth Edition 27
Copyright 2009
A responsibility assignment matrix (RAM) is a
matrix that maps the work of the project as
described in the WBS to the people responsible
for performing the work as described in the OBS
Can be created in different ways to meet unique
project needs
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Management, Sixth Edition 30
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Management, Sixth Edition 33
R = responsibility
A = accountability, only one A per task
C = consultation
I = informed
Note that some people reverse the definitions of responsible and accountable.
Copyright 2009
A staffing management plan describes when
and how people will be added to and taken off the
project team
A resource histogram is a column chart that
shows the number of resources assigned to a
project over time
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Management, Sixth Edition 34
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In addition to providing technical training for IT
personnel, several companies have made
significant investments in project management
training to provide career paths for project
managers ◦ Hewlett Packard employed only six registered PMPs in
1997, but by August 2004, it employed more than 1,500
PMPs and was adding 500 more per year
◦ While most consulting firms offer a single path to a
leadership position, IBM has four to allow their people to
succeed by focusing on their strengths and interests in
one or more disciplines
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Management, Sixth Edition 36
Copyright 2009
Acquiring qualified people for teams is crucial
The project manager who is the smartest person on the team has done a poor job of recruiting!
It’s important to assign the appropriate type and number of people to work on projects at the appropriate times
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Management, Sixth Edition 37
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Staffing plans and good hiring procedures are important, as are incentives for recruiting and retention ◦ Some companies give their employees one dollar for every hour a
new person they helped hire works
◦ Some organizations allow people to work from home as an incentive
Enrollment in U.S. computer science and engineering
programs has dropped almost in half since 2000, and one-
third of U.S. workers will be over the age of 50 by 2010
CIO’s researchers suggest that organizations rethink
hiring practices and incentives to hire and retain IT talent
Information Technology Project
Management, Sixth Edition 38
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Best practices can be applied to include the best
places for people to work ◦ For example, Fortune Magazine lists the “100 Best
Companies to Work For” in the United States every year,
with Google taking the honors in 2007 and 2008
◦ Working Mothers Magazine lists the best companies in
the U.S. for women based on benefits for working
families
◦ The Timesonline (www.timesonline.co.uk) provides the
Sunday Times list of the 100 Best Companies to Work
For, a key benchmark against which UK companies can
judge their Best Practice performance as employers
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Management, Sixth Edition 39
Copyright 2009
Resource loading refers to the amount of
individual resources an existing schedule requires
during specific time periods
Helps project managers develop a general
understanding of the demands a project will make
on the organization’s resources and individual
people’s schedules
Overallocation means that more resources than
are available are assigned to perform work at a
given time
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Management, Sixth Edition 40
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Resource leveling is a technique for resolving
resource conflicts by delaying tasks
The main purpose of resource leveling is to create
a smoother distribution of resource usage and
reduce overallocation
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Management, Sixth Edition 42
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When resources are used on a more constant
basis, they require less management
It may enable project managers to use a just-in-
time inventory type of policy for using
subcontractors or other expensive resources
It results in fewer problems for project personnel
and accounting department
It often improves morale
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Management, Sixth Edition 44
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The main goal of team development is to help
people work together more effectively to improve
project performance
It takes teamwork to successfully complete most
projects
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Management, Sixth Edition 45
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Forming
Storming
Norming
Performing
Adjourning
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Management, Sixth Edition 46
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Training can help people understand themselves,
each other, and how to work better in teams
Team building activities include: ◦ Physical challenges
◦ Psychological preference indicator tools
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Management, Sixth Edition 47
Copyright 2009
MBTI is a popular tool for determining personality preferences and helping teammates understand each other
Four dimensions include: ◦ Extrovert/Introvert (E/I)
◦ Sensation/Intuition (S/N)
◦ Thinking/Feeling (T/F)
◦ Judgment/Perception (J/P)
NTs or rationals are attracted to technology fields
IT people vary most from the general population in not being extroverted or sensing
Information Technology Project
Management, Sixth Edition 48
Copyright 2009
People are perceived as behaving primarily in one
of four zones, based on their assertiveness and
responsiveness: ◦ Drivers
◦ Expressives
◦ Analyticals
◦ Amiables
People on opposite corners (drivers and amiables,
analyticals and expressives) may have difficulties
getting along
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Management, Sixth Edition 49
Copyright 2009
Also uses a four-dimensional model of normal
behavior ◦ Dominance
◦ Influence
◦ Steadiness
◦ Compliance
People in opposite quadrants can have problems
understanding each other
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Management, Sixth Edition 51
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Team-based reward and recognition systems can
promote teamwork
Focus on rewarding teams for achieving specific
goals
Allow time for team members to mentor and help
each other to meet project goals and develop
human resources
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Management, Sixth Edition 53
Copyright 2009
Project managers must lead their teams in performing
various project activities
After assessing team performance and related
information, the project manager must decide: ◦ If changes should be requested to the project
◦ If corrective or preventive actions should be recommended
◦ If updates are needed to the project management plan or
organizational process assets
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Management, Sixth Edition 54
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Observation and conversation
Project performance appraisals
Conflict management
Issue logs
Interpersonal skills
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Management, Sixth Edition 55
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Be patient and kind with your team
Fix the problem instead of blaming people
Establish regular, effective meetings
Allow time for teams to go through the basic
team-building stages
Limit the size of work teams to three to seven
members
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Management, Sixth Edition 56
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Patrick Lencioni, author of several books on
teams, says that “Teamwork remains the one
sustainable competitive advantage that has been
largely untapped”*
The five dysfunctions of teams are:
1. Absence of trust
2. Fear of conflict
3. Lack of commitment
4. Avoidance of accountability
5. Inattention to results
Information Technology Project
Management, Sixth Edition 57
*Lencioni, Patrick, “Overcoming the Five Dysfunctions of a Team,” Jossey-Bass:
San Francisco, CA (2005), p. 3.
Copyright 2009
Plan some social activities to help project team
members and other stakeholders get to know
each other better
Stress team identity
Nurture team members and encourage them to
help each other
Take additional actions to work with virtual team
members
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Management, Sixth Edition 58
Copyright 2009
Software can help in producing RAMS and resource histograms
Project management software includes several features related to human resource management such as: ◦ Assigning resources
◦ Identifying potential resource shortages or underutilization
◦ Leveling resources
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Management, Sixth Edition 59
Copyright 2009
Project managers must: ◦ Treat people with consideration and respect
◦ Understand what motivates them
◦ Communicate carefully with them
Focus on your goal of enabling project team
members to deliver their best work
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Management, Sixth Edition 60
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Project human resource management includes the processes required to make the most effective use of the people involved with a project
Main processes include: ◦ Develop human resource plan
◦ Acquire project team
◦ Develop project team
◦ Manage project team
Information Technology Project
Management, Sixth Edition 61